ZIONSVILLE – All that stood between Zionsville and a November win against Avon were 20 seconds on the clock. As Gabby Woodworth backpedaled on defense, she crumpled into a heap on the ground. All of the sudden, the result of the game was the least of the Eagles’ concerns.

Woodworth was helped off the floor in tears. Just four games into her junior season, she’d torn her ACL.

“To have two starters not come back and play, it made me a little nervous,” leading scorer Maddie Nolan said. “And when Gabby went down, we lost two games and were like, ‘What’re we going to do?’”

The skid was short-lived, as Zionsville won 12 of its next 13. And Woodworth wasn’t absent from the gym for long. She was unable to attend one game, when she had her surgery. She’s been to every other practice and game, and has taken on an important role.

A week after her injury, she was on the bench as the Eagles played Bedford North Lawrence. It was then that she started getting in coach Andy Maguire’s ear.

“‘Coach, she’s not running hard. Coach, she looks tired,’” Maguire recalled her saying. “It’s helped her as a player, sitting there and watching what’s going on.”

Her feedback quickly went from the ears of her coach to the ears of her teammates, though she admits she was initially nervous.

“I was kind of scared how they would react,” she said. “I’m not out there playing.”

Woodworth says she won’t change much about her game when she’s on the court next season — “Be an aggressive player and shoot the ball when I’m open "— which her teammates say is exactly what they need from her. But her basketball IQ has certainly gone up having spent a season on the sideline.

“I feel like I’ve learned things I didn’t ever see as a player — (I see) what coaches see, then I think of it too,” she said.

So while the season hasn’t gone as planned, Woodworth’s value hasn’t diminished.

“I think she’s contributing just as much as she was when she was on the court because of how she encourages us and helps us when we’re down,” Delaney Richason said.